Education

An overview of our work on Oklahoma education

Educating our children is the biggest responsibility that we entrust to our state and local governments. Nevertheless, Oklahoma struggled to fund common education and higher education to meet what’s needed for all kids to have access to a quality education and for our state to have a highly-skilled workforce. We promote policies to adequately fund our education system and advance evidence-based strategies to reach all Oklahoma children.

Education Facts

Featured Articles and Reports

Oklahoma schools don't have enough support staff to meet needs, and their salaries are far too low averaging just $21,583 a year. While HB 1010xx gave support professionals a $1,250 pay raise, it was well short of the $5,000 they asked for. This session, education support professionals must be a bigger part of our conversations about how to better serve Oklahoma's schools. More...

There is a saying that “what gets measured, gets done,” and in 1990, our state Legislature seemed to understand this adage. That year, they passed HB 1017, which dedicated $560 million dollars over five years to implement historic education reforms including class size reduction, curriculum standards, testing, and early childhood programs. Since that time, state funding gains have severely eroded, and Oklahoma has not been able to maintain many aspects of HB 1017 including class size limits. More...

With the Community Eligibility Provision, participating schools can eliminate school meals paperwork and serve all students at no charge. Our report explains the program’s benefits and how it works, as well as its potential for Oklahoma schools... Read more More...

Education Experts

Rebecca Fine joined OK Policy in July 2018 as the education policy analyst. Originally from New York, she began her career in education as an Oklahoma teacher. Rebecca proudly comes from a family of educators, and spent four years teaching middle school in Tulsa and Union Public Schools. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in political science from the University of Rochester and received an M.A. in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.